Method and system for sharing image content based on collection proximity

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods, and computer readable medium are described for performing an action based on determining that the contents of a first image collection and a second image collection are similar. In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to comparing digests representing the two image collections to determine proximity. The digest may be obtained and the comparison made at either a collection sharing device or at a proxy server. The actions performed based on a proximity determination may comprise notifying a user of a first collection sharing device of the availability of other collection sharing devices, or the retrieval of one or more images from the other image collections. In another aspect of the present disclosure, proximity may be measured by comparing subject faces comparing in a first image collection to the faces present in a second image collection.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority from U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/379,379 filed on Sep. 1, 2010, the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to performing an action based onproximity matching between two image collections available on twocollection sharing devices respectively. In one embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the action performed comprises obtaining image datafrom the second collection sharing device at the first collectionsharing device.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

In recent years there has been an enormous increase in the in the amountof digital images being captured. This increase has been fueled bydecreasing digital camera prices, increases in quality and ease of useof digital cameras, and the broad adoption of digital image capturefeatures in cell smartphones at all price levels. This proliferation ofdigital imaging content has exacerbated the long standing problem ofsharing digital images with those who would desire to view them.

Many companies, technologies, and approaches have emerged to addressthis issue of image sharing. Some companies have taken an image centriccentralized approach whereby users upload images to a server and inviteother uses to come and view the images. Examples of companies takingthis approach include ShutterFly™, Snapfish™, Flickr™, and the like.Other companies take a user centric social approach, whereby existingfriend connections may be exploited to distribute images. Examples ofcompanies taking this approach include FaceBook™, MySpace™, and thelike.

The problem with these traditional approaches is that they requireconsiderable effort by the sharing user and are not pre-emptive innature. Predominately, the users must go looking for the images they areinterested in instead of the images finding them. These traditionalapproaches also fail to make connections between users based on thecontent of their image collections.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

With the proliferation of electronic devices capable of capturing,storing, and sharing digital images, there is a need for improvedmethods of sharing digital images requiring minimal effort from users.In the present disclosure, methods systems, and non transitory computerreadable medium are described whereby a first collection sharing deviceis configured to detect the presence of a second collection sharingdevice on a network. A comparison is made between a first imagecollection digest representing a first image collection and a secondimage collection digest representing a second image collection todetermine collection proximity. The collection proximity is subsequentlycompared to a match threshold to determine a proximity match. Based onthe proximity match, actions may be performed.

In one aspect of the present disclosure the action performed comprisesprompting the user of a first image collection device with anotification indicating the presence of the second image collection, andprompting the user of the second collection sharing device with anotification requesting access to it's image collection. In anotheraspect of the present disclosure, image content from the second imagecollection is transferred to and/or displayed on the first collectionsharing device.

The proximity between the first image collection and second imagecollection is determined based on a number of weighting factorsextracted from the images comprising the collections. The weightingfactors may include geographical proximity, temporal proximity, keywordproximity, author proximity, subject face proximity, and image sceneproximity, and event proximity.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, collection proximity isdetermined based on comparing matching preferences from a firstcollection sharing device to an image collection digest of a secondsharing device.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the presentdisclosure and realize additional aspects thereof after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments inassociation with the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part ofthis specification illustrate several aspects of the disclosure, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of thedisclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for performing an action based on acomparison of two image collection digests from a respective twocollection sharing devices;

FIG. 2A illustrates the operation of the system of FIG. 1 according toone embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2B illustrates the operation of the system of FIG. 1 according toanother embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3A illustrates the steps involved in triggering an action based ona collection proximity comparison between two image collection digest;

FIG. 3B illustrates the steps involved in triggering an action based ona collection proximity comparison between an image collection digest andmatching preferences;

FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the imagecollection subsystem shown in FIG. 2 responsible for indexing imagingcontent and providing a collection index over a network to othercollection sharing devices;

FIG. 4B is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the datastructure used to represent an image;

FIG. 4C is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the datastructure used to represent a digital image collection index as shown inFIG. 4A;

FIG. 4D graphically illustrates an exemplary image collection indexed byboth subject and image;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an image collection digestthat operates to exchange information regarding the contents on theimage collection of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2;

FIG. 6A illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface that operatesto obtain matching preferences to be used in matching image collectiondigests;

FIGS. 6B & 6C illustrate exemplary graphical user interfaces operable tonotify the user of a first collection sharing device that a secondcollection sharing device has been detected on the network;

FIGS. 7A & 7B illustrate an exemplary graphical user interface operatingto notify the user of a second collection sharing device that a firstcollection sharing device has requested access to the content on thesecond collection sharing device;

FIGS. 8A & 8B graphically illustrate first and a second exemplarycollections of digital images comprised of subject faces;

FIGS. 9A & 9B are tables illustrating which subject faces are containedin which of a first and a second exemplary collections of digital imagescomprised of subject faces;

FIG. 10 graphically illustrates a table showing the results of anexemplary computation used to determine collection proximity;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the collection sharing device of FIG. 1according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of the proxy server of FIG. 1 according toone embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information toenable those skilled in the art to practice the disclosure andillustrate the best mode of practicing the disclosure. Upon reading thefollowing description in light of the accompanying drawing figures,those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosureand will recognize applications of these concepts not particularlyaddressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts andapplications fall within the scope of the disclosure and theaccompanying claims.

FIG. 1 is a graphical illustration of the system diagram used in thepresent disclosure. The system diagram is comprised of collectionsharing devices 30, a proxy server 100, and a network 20.

In one embodiment, the collection sharing devices 30 communicatedirectly through the network 20 and the proxy server 100 is not present.In this peer-to-peer (P2P) embodiment, described in FIG. 2A, the network20 is preferably a Near Field Communication (NFC) network, such asbluetooth and the like. A local area network (LAN) or wide area network(WAN) 20 may also be employed. In this embodiment, the detectingcollection sharing device 30 executes the logic of FIG. 3.

In another embodiment, the collection sharing devices 30 communicatewith the help of a proxy server 100. In this proxy assisted embodiment,described in FIG. 2B, the collection sharing devices 30 register theirimage collection digest 500 and location with the proxy server 100. Theproxy server 100 then operates to execute the logic of FIG. 3. In thisembodiment, the network 20 is preferably a distributed wide area network(WAN) with public access, such as the Internet.

In both the P2P 200 and proxy assisted 240 embodiments the computingdevices are capable of interacting with and through the network 20 usingvarious protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol (TCP/IP), Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP), and FileTransfer Protocol (FTP).

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the network 20is not limited by the embodiments listed above. More specifically, thenetwork 20 may be any type of network 20 suitable to allow interactionbetween the collection sharing devices 30 and the proxy server 100. Forexample, the network 20 may be a wired network, a wireless network, orany combination thereof. Further, the network 20 may include adistributed computing network, an intranet, a local-area network (LAN)and/or a wide-area network (WAN), or any combination thereof.

The collection sharing devices 30 are comprised of a control system 32and an image collection 400. The control system 32 is further comprisedof a proximity function 34, action function 36, and location function38. The proximity function 34 operates to obtain the image collectiondigests 500 representing the two image collections 400 being analyzed.Collection proximity is determined using the matching preferences 48specified according to the collection matching preferences dialog 600.Using the collection proximity as an input, the action function 36operates to perform various operations involving the two imagecollections 400. The collection sharing device 30 may be implemented insoftware, hardware, or a combination of hardware and software.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the receiving collectionsharing device 30-1 user 10-1 is prompted with a detected collectiondialog 620 630 to obtain an action request according to FIGS. 6B & 6C.Accordingly, the supplying collection sharing device 30-2 user 10-2 isprompted with a requesting access dialog 700 720 to grant sharingpermissions to the requesting user 10-1. The actions implemented by theaction function 36 may include showing the user 10-1 subject facethumbnails, image thumbnails, auto caching image content, and/or autostoring image content. The collection proximity is determined based on anumber of weighting factors comprising: geographical proximity, temporalproximity, keyword proximity, author proximity, subject face proximity,image scene proximity, event proximity, and the like. The locationfunction 38 operates with the location module hardware 1114 to supplythe location of the collection sharing device 30 to the proxy server100.

In one embodiment, the proxy server 100 operates to store and/or cachethe image collection 400-100 and user account information 46 for thecollection sharing device 30 user 10. As such, both collection sharingdevices 30 need not be operating and available for communication at thesame time. In this embodiment, the proxy server 100 performs theproximity function 34 and action function 36 using either data from thecollection sharing devices 30 if available, or alternatively imagecollection 400 data stored at the proxy server 100. The user accounts 46may contain information regarding users 10 matching preferences 48 andprofile information. The proxy server 100 may be implemented insoftware, hardware, or a combination of hardware and software.

As used herein, the term subject is used to represent a person who'sface appears in an image 420. The term subject face is used to representthe face of the subject in the image.

The collection sharing device 30 is used to represent any device capableof sharing digital images 420 on a network 20. Examples of collectionsharing devices 30 would include personal computers, computer servers,cell smartphones, pdas, notebook computers, tablet computers, digitalpicture frames, digital cameras, network enabled TV's, DVR's, STB's, andthe like. Indeed any electronic device capable of performing thefunctions attributed to the collection sharing device 30 should beconsidered within the scope of the disclosure. In another aspect of thepresent disclosure, the collection sharing device 30 is a storage onlydevice capable of hosting an image collection 400 but not capable ofdisplaying and/or capturing images 420.

FIG. 2A illustrates the network 20 interactions between a first and asecond collection sharing device 30 in a P2P embodiment. An imagecollection digest 500 is determined for each collection 202 204. Thefirst collection sharing device 30-1 obtains a first image collectiondigest 500-1 representing the first image collection 206 and secondimage collection digest 500-2 representing a second image collection208. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the user 10-2 of thesecond collection sharing device 30-2 may be prompted for permission toaccess it's collection digest 500-2. The user 10-1 of the firstcollection sharing device 30-1 is prompted with a collection matchingpreferences dialog 600 to obtain matching preferences 48 to be used indetermining the collection proximity 210. The matching preferences 48may be stored 48-1 48-2 at the collection sharing device 30 and/orprovided to the proxy server 100. Using the matching preferences 48,collection proximity is determined 212. In one aspect of the presentdisclosure, the collection proximity is compared to a match threshold.The user 10-1 of the first collection sharing device 30-1 is notifiedthat the second collection sharing device 30-2 has been detected on thenetwork 20 214 as shown in FIGS. 6B & 6C. The first collection sharingdevice 30-1 may be configured to notify the user 10-1 whenever anothercollection sharing device 30-2 is detected on the network 20 without10-1 requiring further user 10-1 input. In another aspect of the presentdisclosure, the first collection sharing device 30-1 may be operated tomanually search for other collection sharing devices 30-2 based onexplicit user 10-1 direction. Before image data is obtained from thesecond collection sharing device 30-2, the user 10-2 of the secondcollection sharing device 30-2 is prompted with a requesting accessdialog 700 720 to obtain permissions for sharing the requested imagedata 216. Subsequently, the request image data is transferred from thesecond image collection 400-2 to the first image collection 400-1 218.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, FIG. 2A illustrates thenetwork 20 interactions between a first and a second collection sharingdevice 30 and a proxy server 100 in a proxy assisted embodiment. Theproxy server 100 aids in interaction between the two collection sharingdevices 30 by offloading the functions of obtaining the collectiondigest 500, determining collection proximity, detecting the presence ofother collection sharing devices 30, determining when two imagecollections 400 are in proximity and have subject faces in common, andthe triggering actions such as prompting the receiving collectionsharing device 30-1 user 10-1, prompting the supplying collectionsharing device 30-2 user 10-2, and transferring image data.

Referring now to the steps of FIG. 2B, an image collection digest 500 isdetermined for each collection 242 244. The proxy server 100 obtains afirst image collection digest 500-1 representing the first imagecollection 246 and second image collection digest 500-2 representing asecond image collection 248. The user 10-1 of the first collectionsharing device 30-1 is prompted with the collection matching preferencesdialog 600 to obtain matching preferences 48 from the user 10-1 to beemployed in determining the collection proximity 249. The matchingpreferences 48 may be stored 48-1 48-2 on the collection sharing device30 and/or provided to the proxy server 100 250. The geographic locationsfor each collection sharing device 30 are periodically sent to the proxyserver 100 251 252. The locations of the two collection sharing devices30 are compared 253, and if they are within sufficient geographicproximity, the collection proximity is determined 254. In one aspect ofthe present disclosure, the collection proximity and match threshold areprovided to the first collection sharing device 30-1 to determine aproximity match. In another aspect of the present disclosure, theproximity match is determined at the proxy server 100 and provided tothe first collection sharing device 30-1. In one aspect of the presentdisclosure, collection proximity is determined, and compared to a matchthreshold to determine a proximity match 256. The user 10-1 of firstcollection sharing device 30-1 is prompted with the detected collectiondialog 620 630 to obtain instructions describing the actions to be taken258 and the results are sent to the proxy server 260.

Note that in the proxy assisted embodiment of FIG. 2B, determiningcollection proximity is triggered based on the two collection sharingdevices being communicatively coupled on a network and optionally withinsufficient geographical proximity. The triggering of this computationmay be based on other stimulus in addition to or in replacement ofgeographic location information. For example, the computation may betriggered based on a modification to a collection digest 500, forexample the addition of one or more images to an image collection 400.The stimulus may also include the detection of a collection sharingdevice 30 that has been successfully accessed in the past. Note alsothat in the adhoc embodiment of FIG. 2A, it is likely but not requiredthat the two devices are in geographical proximity based on the factthat they are communicatively coupled on an adhoc network 20.

Before image data is obtained from the second collection sharing device30-2, the user 10-2 of the second collection sharing device 30-2 isprompted with a requesting access dialog 700 720 to obtain permissionsfor sharing the requested image data. Subsequently, the requested imagedata is transferred from the second image collection 400-2 264 to thefirst image collection 400-1 266.

FIG. 3A illustrates the steps involved in the triggering of actionsbased on the collection proximity between two image collection digest500 300. A first image collection digest 500-1 is obtained 302 from afirst image collection 400-1, and a second image collection digest 500-2is obtained 304 from a second image collection 400-2. An exemplary imagecollection digest 500 is illustrated in FIG. 5. Collection proximity isthen determined 306 by comparing the first image collection digest 500-1to the second image collection digest 500-2 according to matchingpreferences 48. A proximity match is determined by comparing thecollection proximity to a match threshold 308. The collection proximityis determined based on a number of weighting factors including:geographical proximity, temporal proximity, keyword proximity, authorproximity, subject face proximity, image scene proximity, eventproximity, and the like. Finally, an action is performed 310.

FIG. 3B illustrates the steps involved in triggering an action based ona collection proximity comparison between an image collection digest andmatching preferences 320. Matching preferences 48 are obtained 322 froma first collection sharing device 30. An image collection digest 500-1is obtained 324 from a second image collection 400-2. Collectionproximity is then determined 326 by comparing the matching preferences48 to the image collection digest 500. A proximity match is determinedby comparing the collection proximity to a match threshold 328. Anaction is based on the proximity match 330.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the imagecollection 400 subsystem used in the collection sharing device 30 andproxy server 100 of FIG. 1. The image collection 400 subsystem may beimplemented in software, hardware, or a combination of hardware andsoftware. This subsystem is responsible for indexing imaging content andproviding the image collection index 440 over a network 20 via therequest handler 402. The image collection 400 encapsulates the code anddata representing a collection of images 420. The image store 404represents the file system containing the local images 420. The imageindexer 406 contains the program codes for detecting the faces in eachimage 420, and building the image collection index 440. The facefunctions 408 module provides the image processing for facial detection,identification, and matching. The image collection 400 is indexed bothby face (subject index 450) and by image (image index 460). The purposeof the image collection index 440 shown in FIG. 4C is to provideefficient programmatic access to representative images of faces foundwithin an image collection 400, images in which a particular face isfound (subject index 450), and faces within a particular image (imageindex 460). This efficient access is important when image collections400 are accessed over the network 20 and network throughput and latencycan degrade performance. The image collection digest 500, which providesan encapsulation of the images 420 contained in the image collection400, is explained further in FIG. 5.

FIG. 4B is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the datastructure used to represent an image 420. The image 420 contains imagedata 422 representing the pixels of the image. The image data may be ineither compressed or uncompressed form. The metadata 424 containsadditional information about the image 420. The timestamp 426 fieldscontain the date, time, and time zone in which the image 420 wascaptured. The location stamp 428 holds the GPS location coordinates andoptionally altitude at which the image was captured. The keyword tags430 field contains a plurality of textual tags descriptive of the image420. Face tags 432 contain information identifying subject facescontained in the image 420, and their corresponding locations within theimages. The face tags 432 also include identity informationcorresponding to the subjects represented by the faces. The identityinformation may be in the form of the subjects name or usernamecorresponding to an account on the proxy server 100.

FIG. 4C is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the datastructure used to represent an image collection index 440 as used inFIG. 4A.

The subject index 450 contains one entry per unique subject face foundin an image collection 400. For each face 452, the list of images 454 inwhich the face appears is recorded 470 along with the center point ofthe face 476 within the image, and the radius of the circle containingthe face 478. Other approaches for conveying the location of a facewithin an image are possible, such as a rectangular bounding box, andshould be considered within the scope of this disclosure. This structureis advantageous because given a face reference; it is easy to quicklydetermine the list of images 420 in which the face appears.

The image index 460 contains one entry for each image stored in an imagecollection 400. For each image 462, a list of the faces 464 appearing inthe image is recorded. Information regarding the center point 476, andradius 478 is also recorded. The identity information (ID) 479 is aunique identifier of the subject. In one embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the identity information is assigned at the proxy server 100when a subject face is matched to a user 10 of the proxy server 100.This structure is advantageous because given an image 420 reference; itis expedient to quickly determine the list of faces contained in theimage.

FIG. 4D graphically illustrates an exemplary image collection 400indexed by both subject 496 and image 498. The subject index 450corresponds to 496. The image index 460 corresponds to 498. As shown bythe links in this illustration, each subject representation 480 482 484486 contains a link to each image in which that face is found, and eachimage representation 488 490 492 494 contains a link to the subjectsfound within that image. For example, face 001 contains links to images488 and 490. Likewise, image 490 contains links to the reference faceimage 480 for subject 001 and face image 482 for subject 002.

The image collection digest 500 is comprised of information that willenable the proximity function 34 to determine the collection proximitybetween two image collections 400.

The geographic information 504 represents the locations at which theimages 420 comprising the image collection 400 were captured. The datain this field may be stored according to several different schemes. Thegeographic information may be represented as an average position for theimages 420 in the image collection 400, a list of all individualgeographic locations on a per image basis, a list of quantizedgeographic locations, etc. . . .

The temporal information 506 represents the times and dates at which theimages 420 comprising the image collection 400 were captured. The datain this field may be stored according to several different schemes. Thetemporal information may be represented as an average time for theimages 420 in the image collection 400, a list of all individual timeson a per image basis, a list of quantized times, etc. . . . Also, thetimes and dates may be represented together as a single entity, or areseparate entities.

The keyword Information 508 represents the keywords or tags that havebeen used to categorize the images comprising the image collection 400.The data in this field may be stored according to several differentschemes. The keyword information may be stored as a histogram indicatingthe frequency of occurrence of each keyword within the collection, or itmay be stored on a per image basis.

The author information 510 represents the identity of the person orentity who captured the images 420 comprising the image collection 400.The data in this field may be stored according to several differentschemes. The author information may be stored as a histogram indicatingthe frequency of occurrence of each author within the collection, or itmay be stored on a per image basis.

The subject face information 512 represents the subjects found in theimages 420 comprising the image collections 400. The data in this fieldmay be stored according to several different schemes. The subject faceinformation 512 may be stored as a histogram indicating the frequency ofoccurrence of each subject face within the collection, or it may bestored on a per image basis. This information may also be made availablethrough the use of the image collection index 440.

The image scene information 514 is used to represent the various imagescene types found in the image collections 400. Examples of image sceneinformation include sports, landscape, portrait, etc. In one embodimentof the present disclosure, this information is stored in the images 420at the time they are captured, as many cameras have the ability tospecify scene information to the camera to aid in the determination ofauto focus auto, auto white balance, and auto exposure settings. Theimage scene information 514 may be stored as a histogram indicating thefrequency of occurrence of each image scene type within the collection,or it may be stored on a per image basis.

The event Information 516 represents the keywords or tags that have beenused to categorize the images comprising the image collection 400. Asused herein, an event is defined by both a geographic location and atime interval. For example, an event might be specified by GPScoordinates specifying an event location, a radius representing spacearound the event location, and an event time interval. Using thisinformation, it is possible to assign two images to the same event.Examples of events might include parties, gatherings, sporting events,weddings, and the like. In another aspect of the present disclosure,matching the users 10 present at the event location during the eventtime interval may further specify an event. The data in this field maybe stored according to several different schemes. The event informationmay be stored as a histogram indicating the frequency of occurrence ofeach event within the collection, on a per image basis, a list of imagesassigned to events, and the like.

In another aspect of the present disclosure, the image collection index440 may be used as the image collection digest 500, or may be suppliedin addition to the image collection digest 500. When the imagecollection index 440 is used in place of the image collection digest500, all metadata summarized in the image collection digest 500 fields504 506 508 510 512 514 is available as metadata from the subjectreferences 452 and image references 462. Those of ordinary skill in theart will appreciate that the image collection digest 500 is not limitedby the embodiments listed above. Many variations are possible, andshould be considered within the scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6A illustrates a collection matching preferences dialog 600 thatmay be presented to the user 10 of the collection sharing device 30 forthe purpose of allowing the user 10 to specify matching preferences 48that may be used in determining collection proximity between a firstimage collection digest 500-1 and a second image collection digest500-2. As used herein, proximity is used to describe a level ofsimilarity or match between two entities. Two entities are said to havea higher proximity if they are very similar, and a lower proximity ifthey are very different.

As used herein, collection proximity may be determined using a number ofweighting factors, comprising: geographical proximity, temporalproximity, keyword proximity, author proximity, subject face proximity,image scene proximity, event proximity, and the like. Using the matchingpreferences 48, the user 10 may also assign weights to the variousfactors. For example, the collection proximity may be determined withall weighting factors given equal weight (e.g. all of the check boxesselected 602-614), or proximity may be determined by a single factor(e.g. only the subject faces check box selected 610). While not shown inFIG. 6A, other UI's are possible and would allow the user to assign theweighting factors values on a sliding scale, as opposed to the simple onoff provided by the checkboxes.

The Matching Preferences Dialog 600 has two primary sections. Theweighting factors checkboxes 601 allow the user 10 to specify whichweighting factors are used in determining collection proximity. Thesource menus 603 allow the user to select the source of the data thatwill be compared to the image collection digest 500-2 from the supplyingcollection sharing device 30-2. The default operation is for the source616 of the comparison data to be the image collection digest 500-1 fromthe receiving collection sharing device. However, the user may specifyanother source 618 for the data, or provide the data explicitly. As anexample, a user 10 may choose to explicitly specify the subject facesthey are interested by manually selecting those subject faces from theirimage collection 400-1 that they are most interested in. In anotheraspect of the present disclosure, the user 10 may specify subject facesof interest through external information sources such as FacebookConnect™. Using Facebook Connect™, the user may direct their collectionsharing device 30-1 to import social graph information describingfriends and their corresponding subject faces for use in matching.

Selecting the geographic check box 602 indicates to the collectionproximity function 306 to use the geographic locations at which theimages comprising the two image collections 400 were captured indetermining collection proximity. As a result, two image collections 400both comprising images captured in the same city would have highercollection proximity than two image collections 400 comprising imagescaptured in two different cities respectively.

Selecting the temporal check box 604 indicates to the collectionproximity function 306 to use the time at which the images comprisingthe two image collections 400 were captured in determining collectionproximity. As a result, two image collections 400 both comprising imagescaptured in the same day would have higher collection proximity than twoimage collections 400 comprising images captured on two different daysrespectively.

Selecting the keyword check box 606 indicates to the collectionproximity function 306 to use the keywords attached to the imagescomprising the two image collections 400 in determining collectionproximity. As a result, two image collections 400 both comprising imagestagged with the same keyword would have higher collection proximity thantwo image collections 400 comprising images tagged with two differentkeywords respectively.

Selecting the author check box 608 indicates to the collection proximityfunction 306 to use the author information attached to the imagescomprising the two image collections 400 in determining collectionproximity. As a result, two image collections 400 both comprising imageswith the same author information would have a higher collectionproximity than two image collections 400 comprising images withdifference author information respectively.

Selecting the subject face check box 610 indicates to the collectionproximity function 306 to use the subject faces comprising the two imagecollections 400 in determining collection proximity. As a result, twoimage collections 400 both comprising images containing the same subjectfaces would have a higher collection proximity than two imagecollections 400 comprising images containing different subject facesrespectively.

Selecting the image check box 612 indicates to the collection proximityfunction 306 to use image scene information from the images comprisingthe two image collections 400 in determining collection proximity. As aresult, two image collections 400 both comprising images having the sameimage scene information would have a higher collection proximity thantwo image collections 400 comprising images containing different imagescene information respectively.

Selecting the event check box 614 indicates to the collection proximityfunction 306 to use event information from the images comprising the twoimage collections 400 in determining collection proximity. As a result,two image collections 400 both comprising images captured at the sameevent would have a higher collection proximity than two imagecollections 400 comprising images captured at different events.

Referring now to FIG. 6B, in another aspect of the present disclosure inresponse to a receiving collection sharing device 30-1 detecting thepresence of a supplying collection sharing device 30-2 on the network20, the user 10-1 of the receiving collection sharing device 30-1 may bepresented with the detected collection dialog 620 presenting informationregarding the detected image collection 400-2 displaying subject facesappearing in the supplying collection sharing device 30-2. The subjectfaces 622 that are found in both collections 400 are displayed to theuser 10-1, and the user 10-1 is presented with the option 624 to displaythe images containing the subject faces 622 or to store the images intheir image collection 400-1 for later use 626. Selecting to display theimages containing the subject faces 622 results in the user 10-1 beingpresented with the detected collection by image dialog 630. The user10-1 may exit the process completely by selecting cancel 628.

Referring now to FIG. 6C, in response to a receiving collection sharingdevice 30-1 detecting the presence of a supplying collection sharingdevice 30-2 on the network 20, the user 10-1 of the receiving collectionsharing device 30-1 may be presented with the detected collection dialog630 presenting information regarding the detected image collection 400-2displaying images appearing in the supplying collection sharing device30-2. Images 632 comprising subject faces occurring most often (highestsubject proximity) in both image collections 400 are shown to the user10-1, and the user 10-1 is presented with the option 634 to display thesubject faces found in both image collections 400 or to store the imagesfor later use 636. Selecting 634 to display the faces found most oftenin both image collections 400 results in the user 10-1 being presentedwith a detected collection by face dialog 620. The user 10-1 may exitthe process completely by selecting cancel 638.

Referring now to FIG. 7A, after the user 10-1 of the receivingcollection sharing device 30-1 has been prompted with a detectedcollection dialog 620 630, the user 10-2 of the supplying collectionsharing device 30-2 may be prompted with a requesting access by facedialog 700 prompting the user 10-2 for permission to access imagescomprising selected subject faces. The user 10-2 of the supplyingcollection sharing device 30-2 may be shown the subject faces 702 thatappear most often in both collections 400 (highest subject proximity).The user 10-2 is then allowed to grant access to all images containingthese subject faces 704, to grant access to all faces in the collection706, to grant access in exchange for bidirectional access 708 (therebygaining access to the collection of the receiving collection sharingdevice 30-1), to interact with a requesting access by image dialog 720,or to deny access altogether 712.

Referring now to FIG. 7B, in another aspect of the present disclosureafter the receiving collection sharing device 30-1 has been promptedwith a detected collection dialog 620 630, the user 10-2 of thesupplying collection sharing device 30-2 may be prompted with arequesting access by image dialog 720 prompting the user 10-2 forpermission to access selected images. The user 10-2 of the supplyingcollection sharing device 30-2 may be shown the images containingsubject faces that appear most often in both collections 722. Therequesting user 10-1 is then allowed to grant access to all imagescontaining these subject faces 724, to grant access to all images in thecollection 726, to grant access in exchange for bidirectional access 728(access to the collection of the receiving device), to show a requestingaccess by face dialog 700, or to deny any access 732.

It should be noted that while FIGS. 6B, 6C, 7A, and 7B focus on the useof face information for requesting and granting access, other paradigmsare possible and should be considered within the scope of thisdisclosure. For example, any of the weighting factorcategories—geographic, temporal, keyword, author, image scene, orevent—could be used. It is also possible to use combinations of thecategories when constructing the criteria on which access could berequested or granted.

FIGS. 8-10 show an exemplary computation for determining subjectproximity, and corresponding collection proximity. FIGS. 8A & 8Billustrate two exemplary image collections, wherein the images in thecollection are comprised of subject faces. For simplicity sake, the samesubject, when present in an image, always appears in the same locationin the image. This is for illustration purposes only. In this particularexample, collection proximity is determined solely from subjectproximity information. This would correspond to a user selecting onlythe subject face checkbox 610 of the collection matching preferencesdialog 600.

FIG. 8A is a graphical depiction of an exemplary first image collection400. The image collection 400 contains eight images comprised of sixdifferent faces. FIG. 9A represents a matrix 900 showing which of theimages contain which of the faces. Finally, the bottom row of the table902 shows an occurrence count indicating how many times each faceappears within the image collection 400, while the right hand column 904shows an occurrence count indicating how many subjects appear withineach image.

FIG. 8B is a graphical depiction of an exemplary second image collection400. The image collection 400 contains eight images comprised of sixdifferent faces. FIG. 9B represents a matrix 910 showing which of theimages contain which of the faces. Finally, the bottom row of the table912 shows an occurrence count indicating how many times each faceappears within the image collection 400, while the right hand column 914shows an occurrence count indicating how many subjects appear withineach image.

FIG. 10 represents an exemplary computation for determining subject faceproximity and subsequently an overall collection proximity. The firstrow 1001 shows the match confidence multipliers, which is a measure ofconfidence ranging between 0 and 1 indicating the confidence that theindividual subject face match is correct. The second row 1002 indicatesthe number of times each subject face occurs in a first image collection400-1 while the third row 1004 indicates the number of times the sameface occurs within the second image collection 400-2. The fourth row1006 gives the product of the individual face occurrence counts for thetwo collections 400 (product of rows 2 and 3). The bottom row of thetable indicates the subject match certainty measures 1008. A matchcertainty of 0 means that the subject face may occur in one imagecollection 400 or the other, but not both (e.g. the system was unable tomatch the subject face of a user in first collection to the subject faceof a user in the second collection). A non-zero subject match certaintyindicates that it is possible that the subject occurs in both imagecollections 400. The subject match certainty measures are normalized toa maximum of 1, which indicates the highest correlated subject(s). Amatch certainty of 1 indicates that it is certain that the subject faceoccurring in a first image collection 400-1 and a subject face occurringin second image collection 400-2 correspond to the same user or person.

In the case where collection proximity is based solely on subject faceinformation (e.g. only subject face checkbox 610 is selected) thecollection proximity is computed by summing the product of eachindividual subject occurrence counts (OC) scaled by the match certainty(MC). The match certainty being a measure of the probability that twosubject faces from two image collections 400 are indeed the samesubject.subject_(proximity)=NORMALIZED[OC_(collection1)*OC_(collection2)*MC]  Equation(1)

$\begin{matrix}{{collection}_{proximity} = {\frac{1}{numberofimages}{\sum\limits_{n = 0}^{{numbersubjects} - 1}{{subject}_{proximity}\lbrack n\rbrack}}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu}(2)}\end{matrix}$

The numberofimages in equation 2 is the sum of the count of uniqueimages found in the two image collections 400 being compared. In theexample of FIG. 10, collection proximity is determined according toEquation 3.

$\begin{matrix}{{collection}_{proximity} = {{{\frac{1}{16}{\sum\limits_{n = 0}^{7}0}} + {.73} + {.27} + 0 + 0 + 1 + {.13} + 0} = {\frac{2.13}{16} = 1.333}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu}(3)}\end{matrix}$

Other schemes for computing subject face proximity and collectionproximity will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art uponreading this disclosure and are to be considered within the scope of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a collection sharing device 30 (e.g., oneof the one or more collection sharing devices 30 of FIG. 11 according toone embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the collectionsharing device 30 includes a controller 1104 connected to memory 1106,one or more communications interfaces 1108, one or more user interfacecomponents 1110, one or more storage devices 1112, a location module1114, and an image capture module by a bus 1102 or similar mechanism.The controller 1104 is a microprocessor, digital ASIC, FPGA, or thelike. In this embodiment, the controller 1104 is a microprocessor, andthe control system 32 is implemented in software and stored in thememory 1106 for execution by the controller 1104. In this embodiment,the location module 1114 is a hardware component such as, for example, aGPS receiver. The communications interface 1108 is a wirelesscommunication interface that communicatively couples the collectionsharing device 30 to a network 20. For example, the communicationsinterface 1108 may be a local wireless interface such as a wirelessinterface operating according to one of the suite of IEEE 802.11standards, bluetooth, or the like. The one or more user interfacecomponents 1110 include, for example, a touchscreen, a display, one ormore user input components (e.g., a keypad), a speaker, or the like, orany combination thereof. The storage device(s) 1112 is a non-volatilememory used to store the image collection 400 and the like.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a proxy server 100 of FIG. 1 according toan embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, proxy server100 includes a controller 1244 connected to a memory 1246, one or moresecondary storage devices 1230, and one or more communicationsinterfaces 1228 by a bus 1222 or similar mechanism. The controller 1224is a microprocessor, digital Application Specific Integrated CircuitASIC, Field Programmable Gate Array FPGA, or the like. In thisembodiment, the controller 1224 is a microprocessor, and the controlsystem 40 is implemented in software and stored in the memory 1226 forexecution by the controller 1224. Further, the user accounts 46 may bestored in the one or more secondary storage devices 1230. The secondarystorage devices 1230 are digital data storage devices such as, forexample, one or more hard disk drives. The communications interface 1228is a wired or wireless communication interface that communicativelycouples the proxy server 100 to the network 20 of FIG. 1. For example,the communications interface 1228 may be an Ethernet interface, localwireless interface such as a wireless interface operating according toone of the suite of IEEE 802.11 standards, or the like.

EXAMPLES

The following example scenarios are intended to provide non-limitingillustrations of potential uses of the present disclosure.

Scenario #1: adhoc collection matching

1. Fred (user 10-1) has a digital picture frame (collection sharingdevice 30-1) in his kitchen.

2. The images 420 stored on Fred's (user 10-1) digital picture frame(collection sharing device 30-1) contain the faces of Cindy, Jan, andMarsha.

3. Billy (user 10-2) comes to visit Fred (user 10-1) at his home andwalks into the kitchen. Billy (user 10-2) is carrying a smartphone(collection sharing device 30-2) capable of hosting an image collection400. The images 420 on Billy's (user 10-2) smartphone also contain thefaces of Cindy, Jan, and Marsha, among others.

4. After both joining the same adhoc network 20, Fred's (user 10-1)digital picture frame (collection sharing device 30-1) detects thepresence of Billy's (user 10-2) smartphone (collection sharing device30-2).

5. Fred's (user 10-1) digital picture frame (collection sharing device30-1) obtains an image collection digest 500-2 from Billy's (user 10-2)smartphone (collection sharing device 30-2), and compares it to an imagecollection digest 500-1 of it's own image collection 200-1.

6. Fred's (user 10-1) digital picture frame (collection sharing device30-1) determines that Billy's (user 10-2) smartphone contains images 420of interest due to the overlap of the faces present in the imagecollections 200—both image collections 200 contain images 420 containingthe faces of Cindy, Jan, and Marsha.

7. Fred's (user 10-1) digital picture frame (collection sharing device30-1) prompts Fred (user 10-1) with a detected collection dialog 620 630indicating that additional images 420 of interest are available.

8. Several representative thumbnails are retrieved from Billy's (user10-2) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-2) and displayed onFred's digital picture frame (collection sharing device 30-1).

9. Fred (user 10-1) interacts with the digital picture frame (collectionsharing device 30-1), choosing to receive additional images 420 fromBilly's (user 10-2) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-2).

10. Images 420 are transferred from Billy's (user 10-2) smartphone(collection sharing device 30-2) to Fred's (user 10-1) digital pictureframe (collection sharing device 30-1) over the network 20.

Scenario #2: Proxy Assisted Collection Matching

1. Fred (user 10-1) has a digital picture frame (collection sharingdevice 30-1) in his kitchen.

2. The images 420 present on Fred's (user 10-1) digital picture frame(collection sharing device 30-1) contain the faces of Cindy, Jan, andMarsha.

3. Fred's (user 10-1) digital picture frame (collection sharing device30-1) communicates with a proxy server 100 over the network 20 toregister it's location and image collection digest 500-1.

4. Billy (user 10-2) comes to visit Fred (user 10-1) at his home andwalks into the kitchen. Billy (user 10-2) is carrying a smartphone(collection sharing device 30-2) capable of hosting an image collection400. The images on Bill's (user 10-2) smartphone also contain the facesof Cindy, Jan, and Marsha, among others.

5. Billy's (user 10-2) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-2)communicates with a proxy server 100 over the network 20 to registerit's location and image collection digest 500-2.

6. The proxy server recognizes that both Fred's (user 10-1) digitalpicture frame (collection sharing device 30-1) and Billy's (user 10-2)smartphone (collection sharing device 30-2) are in geographic proximity,and that both collections 200 contain images 420 containing the faces ofCindy, Jan, and Marsha.

7. The proxy server 100 communicates with Fred's (user 10-1) digitalpicture frame (collection sharing device 30-1) causing it to prompt Fred(user 10-1) with a detected collection dialog 620 630 indicating thatadditional images 420 of interest are available.

8. Several representative thumbnails are retrieved from Billy's (user10-2) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-2) and displayed onFred's (user 10-1) digital picture frame (collection sharing device30-1).

9. Fred (user 10-1) interacts with the digital picture frame (collectionsharing device 30-1), choosing to receive additional images 420 fromBilly's (user 10-2) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-2).

10. Images 420 are transferred from Billy's (user 10-2) smartphone(collection sharing device 30-2) to Fred's (user 10-1) digital pictureframe (collection sharing device 30-1) over the network 20.

Scenerio #3: Adhoc Collection to Preferences Matching (e.g Real TimeCapture Notification)

1. Lucy (user 10-1) is attending a party, and has a smartphone(collection sharing device 30-1) in her pocket.

2. Lucy (user 10-1) would like to know if anyone captures an image atthe party where her face appears in the image.

3. Lucy's (user 10-1) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-1)specifies only her face in her matching preferences 48-1.

4. Jill (user 10-2) is also at the party and is taking pictures with anetwork enabled camera (collection sharing device 30-2). Jill (user10-2) happens to take a picture in which Lucy's (user 10-1) faceappears, and the image gets stored in the image collection 400-2 onJill's (user 10-2) camera (collection sharing device 30-2), and Lucy's(user 10-1) face gets added to the collection digest 500-2,

5. Lucy's (user 10-1) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-1)periodically scans for the presence of other collection sharing devices30, and obtains an updated collection digest from Jill's (user 10-2)camera (collection sharing device 30-2).

6. Lucy's (user 10-1) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-1)compares the her match preferences 48-1 to the obtained collectiondigest 500-2 obtained from Jill's (user 10-2) camera (collection sharingdevice 30-2) and determines a proximity match.

7. Lucy's (user 10-1) smartphone (collection sharing device 30-1)prompts her with a detected collection dialog 620 630 indicating thepresence of images 420 that may be of interest to her.

8. The new image captured by Jill's (user 10-2) camera (collectionsharing device 30-2) is copied to Lucy's (user 10-1) smartphone(collection sharing device 30-1) for later use.

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modificationsto the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure. All suchimprovements and modifications are considered within the scope of theconcepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method comprising: obtaining from a first collection sharing device a first image collection digest; obtaining from a second collection sharing device a second image collection digest; determining a collection proximity by comparing the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest wherein a proximity match is determined by comparing the collection proximity to a matching threshold; and, performing an action based on the proximity match, wherein the action performed comprises notifying a user of the first collection sharing device that the second collection sharing device is communicatively coupled over a network.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the action performed further comprises displaying an image of a subject face corresponding to a subject appearing in at least one image in both the first image collection and the second image collection.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the subject is selected based on subject face proximity.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest are comprised of an image collection index.
 5. A computer implemented method comprising: obtaining from a first collection sharing device a first image collection digest; obtaining from a second collection sharing device a second image collection digest; determining a collection proximity by comparing the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest, wherein a proximity match is determined by comparing the collection proximity to a matching threshold; and, performing an action based on the proximity match, wherein the action performed comprises obtaining an image from the second collection sharing device at the first collection sharing device.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the image is comprised of a subject face corresponding to a subject appearing in at least one image in both the first image collection and the second image collection.
 7. A computer implemented method comprising: obtaining from a first collection sharing device a first image collection digest; obtaining from a second collection sharing device a second image collection digest; and, determining a collection proximity by comparing the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest, wherein the second image collection digest is obtained again from the second collection sharing device when the second image collection digest stored at the second collection sharing device is modified.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the modification is comprised of an additional image being stored in the second image collection at the second collection sharing device.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the additional image is stored in the second image collection at the second collection sharing device after being captured by the second collection sharing device.
 10. A computer implemented method comprising: obtaining from a first collection sharing device a first image collection digest; obtaining from a second collection sharing device a second image collection digest; and, determining a collection proximity by comparing the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest, wherein obtaining the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest occurs at the first collection sharing device.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the collection proximity is determined at the first collection sharing device.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first image collection digest and second image collection digest are obtained at the first collection sharing device in response to the first collection sharing device detecting the second collection sharing device on a network.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first collection sharing device and the second collection sharing device are communicatively coupled over an LAN.
 14. A computer implemented method comprising: obtaining from a first collection sharing device a first image collection digest; obtaining from a second collection sharing device a second image collection digest; and, determining a collection proximity by comparing the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest, wherein obtaining the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest occurs at a proxy server and wherein the second image collection digest is obtained at the proxy server from the second collection sharing device in response to the proxy server determining that the first collection sharing device and the second collection sharing device are in geographical proximity.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the collection proximity is determined at the proxy server.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the first collection sharing device, the second collection sharing device, and the proxy server are communicatively coupled over a WAN.
 17. A computer implemented method comprising: obtaining from a first collection sharing device a first image collection digest; obtaining from a second collection sharing device a second image collection digest; and, determining a collection proximity by comparing the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest, wherein the collection proximity is determined as a function of a count of subject faces occurring at least once in both the first image collection and the second image collection.
 18. A computer implemented method comprising: obtaining from a first collection sharing device a first image collection digest; obtaining from a second collection sharing device a second image collection digest; and, determining a collection proximity by comparing the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest, wherein the collection proximity is determined as a function of a count of images containing subject faces occurring at least once in both the first image collection and the second image collection.
 19. A computer implemented method comprising: obtaining from a first collection sharing device a first image collection digest; obtaining from a second collection sharing device a second image collection digest; and, determining a collection proximity by comparing the first image collection digest and the second image collection digest, wherein the collection proximity is determined based on weighting factors selected from the group consisting of geographical proximity, temporal proximity, keyword proximity, author proximity, subject face proximity, image scene proximity, and event proximity. 